If It's Thursday...

Ahead of tomorrow's monthy unemployment numbers, new unemployment filings fell 20k to 512,000, and continuing claims have fallen to 5.75 million. Of course, with Congress passing legislation to extend benefits another 14-20 weeks, this number's headed back up above 6 million soon.

Some interesting productivity numbers this month however.

The Labor Department said non-farm productivity surged at a 9.5 percent annual rate, the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2003. Productivity grew at a 6.9 percent pace in the April-June period.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast productivity, which measures the hourly output per worker, rising at a 6.4 percent rate in the third quarter.

Productivity in manufacturing rose at a record 13.6 percent rate in the third quarter.

Total non-farm output rebounded, growing at a 4 percent rate in the July-September quarter after dropping 1.1 percent in the previous period.

Productivity has increased sharply over the past two quarters, largely driven by aggressive cost cutting by businesses.

American workers are producing more with fewer people and doing so with fewer hours, and yet wages are stagnant or falling. Gotta love how that bodes for the recovery.